Statistics
Birth Rate: 19.86 births/1,000 population
Death Rate: 6 deaths/1,000 population Natural Increase: 0.7% Infant Mortality Rate: 10.2 deaths/1,000 live births - Male: 11.24 deaths/1,00 live births - Female: 9.1 deaths/1,000 live births Total Population: 903,207 Population Density: 46.4 people per square kilometer |
Population Pyramid:0-14 years: 28.2% (male 130,013/female 124,423)
15-24 years: 17.1% (male 78,751/female 75,358) 25-54 years: 41.1% (male 190,035/female 181,268) 55-64 years: 7.8% (male 35,616/female 34,920) 65 years and over: 5.8% (male 24,282/female 28,541) (2014 est.) |
Demographic Transition:
Fiji is classified as stage stage three, which means that Fiji's death rates are fairly low while birth rates are gradually coming down.The reason for the fall in births may be due to family planning, better education, lower infant mortality rate, a more industrialised way of life and the want for more material possessions as well as women being able to work.
Population Situation:
Women had a low status in Fiji in the pre-independence era. They suffered from many customs and conventions which discriminated against them. Not many women were in paid employment, although most worked on cane farms, rice farms and copra plantations, making a valuable contribution to the economy as workers. The existing laws disadvantaged women, most seriously in the field of employment. After independence in 1970, many of the discriminatory laws against women were slowly changed, leading to an improvement in the status of women. It was a slow process mainly because women themselves did not agitate for their rights until the 1980s.
Declines in fertility and population growth rates in the Pacific have lagged behind trends in other developing countries. In Fiji, most of which lack policy and public support for effective family planning and emigration outlets, rates of population growth remain among the highest in the world. The effect that high population growth rates have had in slowing economic growth appears to be not well understood by policymakers. Throughout the Pacific, high population growth has led to migration from smaller outer islands to larger islands and from rural areas to towns, especially national capitals. Key drivers of these trends include push factors, such as declining agricultural economic goods prices and livelihood opportunities and insufficient rural land to confer social standing, as well as pull factors, such as the prospect of cash employment, perhaps with the government, the availability of public services in town and the intrinsic excitement of urban areas. (http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTPACIFICISLANDS/Resources/Chapter+1.pdf)
Declines in fertility and population growth rates in the Pacific have lagged behind trends in other developing countries. In Fiji, most of which lack policy and public support for effective family planning and emigration outlets, rates of population growth remain among the highest in the world. The effect that high population growth rates have had in slowing economic growth appears to be not well understood by policymakers. Throughout the Pacific, high population growth has led to migration from smaller outer islands to larger islands and from rural areas to towns, especially national capitals. Key drivers of these trends include push factors, such as declining agricultural economic goods prices and livelihood opportunities and insufficient rural land to confer social standing, as well as pull factors, such as the prospect of cash employment, perhaps with the government, the availability of public services in town and the intrinsic excitement of urban areas. (http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTPACIFICISLANDS/Resources/Chapter+1.pdf)
Impact of Population Situation on People and Environment:
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, about 50,000 Indian laborers arrived in the islands to work on sugar plantations. Recent immigrants have come from neighboring islands. There has been steady internal migration from rural to urban areas. There are no restrictions on emigration, and 40,000 have done so since 1987, following the coup. Most of these emigrants were professionals or IndoFijians. In 1996, it was estimated that Indians emigrated at a rate of between 4,000 and 5,000 a year. In 2002 Fiji received $53 million in remittances.
Population Density:The majority of the Fijian population lives in the capital, Suva, which is the most densely populated region in Fiji, with 62.1 per cent of the country’s total urban population. There is also a large population on the Northern half of Viti Levu and along the Northern boarder of Vanua Levu. More than half of Fiji's population lives on the island coasts, either in Suva or in smaller urban centers. The interior is less populated due to its rough terrain. The native Fijians live throughout the country, while the Indo-Fijians live primarily near the urban centers and in the cane-producing areas of the two main islands. (http://www.factrover.com/people/Fiji_people.html)
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Works Cited:
- http://www.indexmundi.com/fiji/age_structure.html
- https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/fj.html
- http://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/fiji-population/
- http://indexmundi.com/fiji/demographics_profile.html
- http://www.fijitimes.com/story.aspx?id=193333
- http://www.bestcountryreports.com/Population_Map_Fiji.php
- http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTPACIFICISLANDS/Resources/Chapter+1.pdf
- http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Fiji.aspx
- http://www.indexmundi.com/fiji/age_structure.html
- https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/fj.html
- http://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/fiji-population/
- http://indexmundi.com/fiji/demographics_profile.html
- http://www.fijitimes.com/story.aspx?id=193333
- http://www.bestcountryreports.com/Population_Map_Fiji.php
- http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTPACIFICISLANDS/Resources/Chapter+1.pdf
- http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Fiji.aspx